Your Wedding, Your Rules: A $3K Wedding in 30 Days—Kaitlynn's Story

If you're feeling weighed down by the idea that your budget or timeline is holding you back from having the wedding of your dreams, this episode will blow your mind. Kaitlyn shares how she tapped into her support system, embraced non-traditional choices, and stayed true to her vision without sacrificing joy or style. Whether you're navigating financial constraints or just want to break away from the norm, this episode is packed with inspiration, proof that your wedding really can be whatever you want it to be. Trust your instincts, embrace help, and get ready to do things your way, because your wedding is yours to design. 

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Transcript

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Your Wedding, Your Rules: A $3K Wedding in 30 Days—Kaitlynn's Story

[00:00:00] Amy: What you are about to hear is going to be a game changer in your own wedding planning. It is jam-packed with wisdom. 

[00:00:08] Hey Bride, if planning your wedding hasn't exactly gone how you hoped, or if stressed is becoming the leading lady of your wedding story, you have come to the right place. I'm Amy, a life coach and your wedding wing-woman. This is Hey Bride, a podcast meant to encourage, inspire, and uplift you. In each episode, myself and other guests will drop gems and fresh perspectives so that you can stress less, embrace your bridal badassery, and enjoy this.

[00:00:53] We are kicking off an exciting new series called Your Wedding, Your Rules. This series is all about empowering you to create a wedding of your dreams, no matter what's going on, not your budget, your timeline, nothing. You're about to meet Kaitlynn, a newlywed who recently threw an incredible wedding for under $3,000 and in less than 30 days.

[00:01:18] Yeah, you heard me right. Those are the facts. 

So if you haven't already, press pause, go grab your favorite drink and prepare to have your mind blown by what is possible when you throw out the rules and embrace your inner bridal badass. This is like a bonus of the whole series. I thought, why not start it off with somebody who did the damn thing.

[00:01:45] So I want to give you a quick heads up. The audio quality in the interview, well, it's not perfect. But trust me, Kaitlynn's story is so valuable and so inspiring that it's Absolutely worth the [00:02:00] listen. It's not even that bad. I just wanted to say something because I happened to notice it when I was editing.

[00:02:07] Definitely just stick with us. What you are about to hear is going to be a game changer in your own wedding planning. It is jam packed with wisdom. Her story really is proof that when you stay true to yourself and you aren't afraid to buck tradition, magic happens.

[00:02:27] Thank you so much for coming on to the show and talking with me. It's super appreciated. The reason I asked you on is I am a recent bride myself I'm still in all the bride groups. I actually transitioned my business from general life coaching to coaching with brides while I was planning my wedding because I saw all the shit that brides were dealing with and it was super disheartening and sad and I was like, no, it doesn't have to be like this.

[I found you in a group about budgeting. Like throwing a wedding for 10, 000 or less, that's not the name of the group, but that's basically the gist. You recently got married, so congratulations. What was the date? 

[00:03:15] Kaitlynn: It was June 26th. 

[00:03:18] Amy: Okay, so the thing that really, made my heart, how do I want to say this?

The thing that made me really want to talk to you Is how I felt when I was reading your post. You have, well, you tell us how much did you budget for your wedding?

[00:03:39] Kaitlynn: Honestly, me and my now husband, we didn't really spend a dime. my mother, , when she found out that we were engaged, she set aside two thousand dollars for us. So that was the original budget and then it really does take a village and I have the privilege of [00:04:00] having really great in-laws. They donated a lot and it was really great to have a lot of help from the whole family. That really helped, but, so, with the 2, 000 that my mom set aside, plus all of the stuff that my in-laws donated, I think we were roughly about $3000 in total.

[00:04:24] Amy: Which is incredible. First of all, I want to just start by saying this: to any bride who's listening or any person who's hoping that they're getting married or is planning on getting married but they haven't like been asked yet, you can throw a beautiful wedding on any budget. In your case, it was free.

[00:04:47] It wasn't free for everybody, but for you and your now spouse, it, it was. You guys didn't go in debt. You didn't have to spend your own money. I think [00:05:00] one thing that really is disheartening for brides is when they see all the costs. So, I don't know, do you know what the average wedding cost is in the area of the country that you live?

[00:05:15] Kaitlynn

: Oh lord, , It's in the thousands. I know that. Um, we have a couple friends of ours that are planning their wedding and I think they're at least up to $25,000 

[00:05:26] Amy: yes, that is the average here. I live in Metro Detroit and that is the average for a 100 person wedding is like 20 to 24, 000. It's like a hundred or less.

[00:05:39] That for some people, that is a lot of money for other people it's not. But for a lot of people, it really truly is. 

[00:05:49] Back to like, I asked you to come on and talk with me is when I, was reading your post, it made me really think [00:06:00] of brides that are planning a wedding, their budget. Is we'll say 10, 000 or less because that's the group that we were in but a lot of people don't think that's enough and I've seen a lot of people become very discouraged because they feel like their budget. isn't big enough and I think it changes the experience for the bride and for their fiancé. , so I just kind of want to talk about your experience and how it went for you you can tell us about all of the untraditional, Outside of societal norms, some people would think is like, not okay.

[00:06:41] I personally, like I am rebellious at heart. So I'm like, yes, screw that noise. Do what you got to do, girl. You did. So do you want to walk us through. First, all the things that you decided to do to get the most bang for your buck, and then how you [00:07:00] managed your own emotions about it, or even if you had to.

[00:07:03] Some people might have a lot of thoughts about it and it might feel really constricting, and then when they do some of the things that you're going to tell us you did, they might have a lot of thoughts about that. So yeah, tell us all the things. 

[00:07:18] Kaitlynn: I guess I'll start with, we originally were going to do the big fancy, the big dress and all that the venue, that was the original plan. And then of course, life happened and money is tight for everybody in this world right now. So, we were kind of tossing around the idea of potentially postponing the wedding altogether. we were originally supposed to get married in October this year. we were thinking about pushing it back to kind of save up some more money. I had already known that my mom had the 2, 000 set aside for me, which was great. 

[00:07:52] Then like I said, life kind of happened, bills got tight. we did have to use some of that money out of the budget to help pay for [00:08:00] bills. That was kind of discouraging that we had this money for the wedding and we were working towards saving up more and then we just couldn't and so then wedding planning all together kind of just got thrown in a box in a corner. 

[00:08:13] Eventually just one day, my fiancé, he just said, I just really want to get married to you.

[00:08:18] I don't care how we do it, where we do it. He's like, I'm just ready. I'm ready to call you my wife. I kind of looked at him and I said, well, I'm ready too. So how do we do that? And so we ended up moving the wedding up four months we had In total a month from the day we decided we were going to move it up to the actual date.

[00:08:37] We had a month, so it was like, okay, how do we plan an entire wedding in essentially less than a month because you got to have everything ready before the day of, hopefully? So, I texted my dad and I said, Hey, if we move the wedding day up, can we do it in the backyard? And he said, yeah, absolutely. I said, okay, great.

[00:08:58] And then like not even 20 minutes later, he texted me back and said, I already have a tent rented in tables and chairs. What else do you need me to do? And I said, Oh my gosh. Okay. So, we just kind of Went from there it all went really fast. Like I said, my village was really helpful. So I was able to delegate some things off to people which was really helpful.

[I struggle really bad with anxiety. I knew it was going to be stressful, but having them to kind of rely on like, Hey, I need you to focus on decorations. I'll send you a list and photos for inspiration and I want you to look at those and see what maybe you could do. 

[00:09:40] my mother-in-law, she did all the decorations for me., which was great. my father in law, he donated beef brisket and some pork butts. My mother-in-law did also donate a couple of those too. And so I was like, okay, awesome. We have the main course. Now what are we going to do for food? We're like, well, what's the cheapest [00:10:00] way we can do that? Because food is one of the most expensive parts of a wedding. And I said, well, you know what? We're both really laid-back people. We don't really want to focus so much on the ceremony. We want it to just be a big party. We like to hang out with our friends and family. And so that was what was important to us. So, we said, well, you know what, just have everyone bring a dish to pass. 

[00:10:23] My mom kind of pushed back on that a little bit because that's where that societal norm is. And like, it's kind of like a picnic., you don't want to do that. And I said, nope, I don't care if that's what I'm doing. And she's like, okay.

[00:10:36] That actually turned out really nice. We had so much food. I also do think though, that it kind of depends on your crowd that you have that will be attending because, um, luckily both my side and his side are very food motivated and we're big foodie people. So we had a lot of food.

[00:10:54] Amy: Alright, that's a couple things right there.

[00:10:58] And I'm like listening to you and my little [00:11:00] eyeballs are tearing up, not in a cry way, but I have a lot of, I feel a lot of joy, hearing you talk, , because I think what you did is incredible. I think that It is inspiring and I'm just so happy. I'm so happy that you're sharing this. 

[00:11:20] You said it takes a village and I don't think you could have said anything truer and it sounds like the people, your support system really knows you.

[00:11:33] I also deal with anxiety. It's something I manage daily. When I was planning my wedding, For me, I felt better, like the experience that I wanted, I had over a year. It was very personal, so I didn't really include other people until like the wedding itself, and then they came in clutch.

[00:11:53] But that's like a whole other story. Anyways, I just think that that's important for brides to [00:12:00] remember, is that, A closed mouth doesn't get fed. , you called your dad, all you asked him is, can I use your yard? That threw him into action. , I really truly do believe that our loved ones want to do things for us.

[00:12:17] They want to support us. They want us to succeed. And I think that just, this is just like such a beautiful example of that. , How did that feel?

[00:12:28] Kaitlynn: It was amazing, honestly. , That people were so accepting of the like almost shotgun wedding. Yeah, that we ended up doing Yeah, it was it was really nice. Yeah, I mean I guess I would feel really loved I would feel like super loved that people are just like oh you want to have a wedding? Oh in a month in our yard.

[00:12:56] Okay. I got you. I love you. We're gonna make this [00:13:00] happen Did you How did you designate assignments to people, or how did you decide who, who you, yeah, I guess first answer that question before I ask the next one. Like, how did that all work? Yeah, I guess I did kind of designate, People for certain things like my mother in law, she asked what she could do to help and I said, well, at that stage of planning, I was on to the decoration phase and I said, honestly, if you could look into stuff like this, , price check around, I'll send you some things on Amazon and, , you can go from there.

And so she did that and ordered all my decorations. I got everything from Amazon, which is really nice. And everything was really good quality. 

[00:13:44] Amy: Yeah, I mean, I definitely agree. I don't think, sometimes I think that we pay a lot more for things just because of where they are when you can get really good quality things for a lesser price. 

[For the decor, how much, do you know like what her total was? 

[00:14:01] Kaitlynn: Yeah, honestly, off the top of my head, I don't. I would say maybe total around $150 ish. 

[00:14:10] Amy: That's so awesome. And , that is, that's amazing in itself, but I think the really profound thing, really, that you said here, you probably don't even, you might not realize it, I don't feel like you do, is that for so many people when a mother in law says, or anybody really, like, how can I help, their initial reaction, like, their knee jerk reaction is to say, I'm okay, I, I got this, like, we'll be alright, I'll let you know, and then they never Follow up.

[00:14:46] I don't know what kind of person you are because we're just meeting right now Is this generally like who you are or did you make a decision going into this like, okay? This is how we're gonna make this happen. I'm just gonna accept everybody's help 

[00:14:59] Kaitlynn: I definitely am very much, and I will try to do everything myself, but I knew that I wasn't going to be able to in this situation. I knew I was going to need help, and I didn't want it to be that horrible, stressful bridezilla moment of trying to do everything myself. I knew I was going to need help. So, if anyone said, Hey, I can help you out. What do you need? And I was like, okay, here we go. This is what you're doing. 

[00:15:26] Amy: Love it. Also I feel like that just show I had to have like strengthened and maybe it didn't, I might be wrong, but I feel like if I was a part of this, which I kind of like FOMO because it sounds like it was really beautiful and meaningful. , I feel like if somebody. If I said, Hey, I want to help. And you're like, all right, how about you do decorations?

[00:15:48] I'm going to just send you some Pinterest boards for inspo go ham. You have so much trust for that person. You are trusting them and you're giving them free [00:16:00] reign. That would be such a relationship builder, especially for something as significant as your wedding.

[00:16:08] It doesn't matter what your budget is. It's still an important moment and like detaching yourself from wanting to micromanage everything and trusting the people that want to support you to do the thing that they say, I think is super fantastic. Geez Louise. I think it's awesome. Okay. Let's see. So the potluck genius idea.

[00:16:35] I think that was a great idea. Yep. Your mom, like, having a little bit of pushback, how, which I get, obviously, and also at the same time, is it true? I don't know, mom. Like, does it really matter or does it only matter to you? And, like, why does it even matter to you? When she said that, how did it make you feel?

[00:16:57] , and , how did you, [00:17:00] overcome that if it even made you feel anything it might not have?

[00:17:04] Kaitlynn: Well, she didn't tell me that until after the wedding that she felt a little nervous about it so I had no idea that she had an issue with it and my mom has worked for years in the culinary industry so I would have thought that she would have thought So that was a cool idea and a great way to save money.

[00:17:21] And, and then after the wedding, she comes out and says, well, I will say, I thought it was a little strange and I was like, what? But she said, Caitlin, it turned out amazing. Everyone brought a dish. You had so much food. It was amazing. And she now wants us to do a once-a-year family reunion kind of thing where we all bring a dish to pass because she said that she ate so much so much food and she was able to get a little bit of everything.

[00:17:49] In the end, she was super excited that it worked out, but she didn't have her doubts at first, but she didn't voice them to me in the time at the moment, which maybe would have irritated me a little more. , but no, it was just kind of like, well, I, I went into it with the attitude of, you know, This is mine and my husband's day. If you don't like what we're doing, you don't have to be there. 

Yeah, I got you. Doesn't even sound like you had to flex that muscle. 

[00:18:21] Kaitlynn: No, luckily, I didn't. 

[00:18:23] Amy: I think that sometimes when we believe that something's possible things just happen for us and when your now husband said, you know what, Kaylin, I really just kind of want to marry you.

[00:18:38] I don't want to wait, and you're like, okay. Me too! By you guys Really being honest with each other and deciding that you weren't going to let finances be a constraint, I’m a little woo. So I believe by doing that everything just kind of like lined up for you the stars aligned and it was just like go [00:19:00] time and things worked out.

[00:19:01] You had a beautiful mindset it sounds to me. You are aligned as an example of what is possible, uh, for a wedding despite where it is, how many days it is, your budget, , the experience that you had is something that every bride deserves and doesn't know how to give themselves. I say give themselves.

I think it's important that I address what I said and how I said it. Because it was on purpose. We outsource control and power over our situation. I think as human beings, especially as women. , and we end up having an experience that we don't like because we kind of allow it to happen because we give away our power.

[00:19:47] When you have a, when you make a decision like you and your husband did that, we don't care what it's going to, like, we're just going to make it happen because at the end of the day, this is what we want. And you align yourself to your vision, which to [00:20:00] me, you didn't tell me what your vision was. Well, you kind of did.

[00:20:03] You wanted it to feel like a party with your closest loved ones is what it sounds like. And food, because your mom is a culinary person. It sounds like, you know, in the kitchen is where things happen around food is where family connects. It's and so it sounds like super meaningful. It didn't cause you a bunch of stress or anxiety, and you ended up having.

[00:20:26] A wedding that wasn't just good for a day, but it started a tradition. I don't know if it can get better. That is lit. I feel like you, like, went through my, like, the branding of, like, what I do, and, like, you are this person who has achieved that. I think it's so incredible. Makes me really happy…

[00:20:47] A month is a very short time and we just kind of like scathed over that. Did you have any thoughts or feelings about the, or did you get any like shock and awe from other people that you were about to [00:21:00] throw a wedding in less than 30 days? 

[00:21:04] Kaitlynn: Yeah, of course we had a couple of people that couldn't make it because they had other stuff already booked, which we understood, and we knew that was going to be a possibility with moving the timeline up so, by so much.

[00:21:16] And it was, it was, it was still really nice though because, The people that did show up were amazing. And then we also had some surprises. So some people thought that they weren't going to make it. So they RSVP that they weren't going to make it. And they still were able to show up, which was amazing.

[00:21:36] My grandma and my uncle live out of state out in Arizona. And they originally told me that they weren't going to make it. And then they surprised me the week of my wedding. That was amazing. And, , my husband's aunt, , they were going to be out of town and they were there. It was really great to see that even though it was kind of a struggle moving it up so much, , [00:22:00] that there were still some really nice surprises in that.

[00:22:03] Amy: That's a beautiful surprise. I firmly believe that if you want to be, sometimes you just can't like, that's just reality. But when you really want to do something or show up for somebody or celebrate a couple for their wedding, you will move hell and high water to be there and they did. And I think that's awesome. And that will in itself have like a lasting memory for both of you. You guys were beautiful. 

[00:22:34] First of all, I like just the few pictures that I saw. Good photography, but also you can have great photography and if the energy of the celebration, isn't where you want it to be, you can see it and your wedding reeked of joy and love and fun. It looked fun and you guys looked genuinely happy. 

[00:22:59] You want to just like [00:23:00] tell us how your day went, how, you were able to do that. 

[00:23:05] Kaitlynn: Yeah. Well, actually, my aunt, she did the photography for us.

[00:23:10] That was her gift to us. so that was really awesome of her. My mom has always said that my aunt always takes the best pictures of me because you can see the love through the camera. I feel like that's something really important when thinking of photography. As a photographer myself, first of all having to have someone else take my pictures was a struggle.

[00:23:33] But I, she did an amazing job and they turned out great. Yeah, no, it started, , I was there all day, like from the time I got up, I went to my dad's house. My maid of honor was my cousin, she met me out there and we just started setting up. We decorated all the tables. I didn't want to go all out cause I wanted to save as much money as possible.

[00:23:57] So I did minimal table [00:24:00] decorations. , I am the kind of the person who has many hobbies and decorations and interior design. All that kind of stuff is a pretty big hobby of mine. So I truly enjoyed the setting up and getting everything decorated how I wanted it.

I had a vision going into it of this is what I want this to look like. I'm going to make this happen one way or another. And my cousin was there and she helped me out a lot then as the day progressed and the rest of the bridal party got there and helped us kind of get the, the odds and ends of things, , set up, , and then from there, we did a very, very quick five minute rehearsal the day of 

[Just very, this is who you're walking with, this is how it's going to go. We're going to walk up to the, we stood under an archway, a beautiful pine archway that my dad handmade for us. I am honestly obsessed with it [00:25:00] and, I'm so excited to be able to bring home and put it in my garden. , but, uh, so we did a very quick five-minute rehearsal, and then we kind of parted ways. The guys went and did their thing. And us girls went to one of my bridesmaids, uh, lived right around the corner from my dad. So we went there and we all got ready together and, and then it was showtime. Yeah. 

[00:25:24] Amy: So not only did you put together, with the help of everybody, a wedding in less than 30 days for under 3, 000, you guys had like, you had a bridal party.

[00:25:38] I really want you to see what they did. It's not like a hodgepodge thing. It, it wasn't people just wearing street clothes. You had a beautiful wedding, you all looked beautiful. So, when you originally, when we first started talking, you were like, you know, you don't need to have a big, you know, beautiful dress.

[00:26:00] You had a beautiful dress. You looked beautiful. You looked like a bride. You, like, your budget and your time constraint and everything Your aunt, like how you went about it didn't take away from the fact that it was a wedding and it had to have felt like a wedding for you. Because looking in as an observer, it looked like a wedding to me and I was like, holy shit, how did she do it?

[00:26:21] Kaitlynn: Yeah, well, funny thing about the dress is, I'd actually bought it last summer. And was going to use it for a witchy photo shoot that I do every year. And I was going to dye it black and green. And I ended up not doing the photo shoot. So I still had this cream colored dress from Meijer that I got on sale for like 20 bucks, and so that was my wedding dress.

[00:26:47] Amy: There you go. Where there is a will, there's a way. And you are proof of that. looking back, you're married. , now you can say like, I am your wife. How are you feeling? Are you incredibly happy and proud of yourself? 

[00:27:03] Kaitlynn: I am, yes. It feels amazing to finally be married. 

We've been together, it'll be four years this August. We have a one-year-old son. But to make that next step has been amazing so far and I

[00:27:18] Amy: So, when you are engaged and your wedding planning, you're in a life transition and I don't think people really realize it and how your transition, the level of support that you received, the level of trust that you gave other people- when we, when we accept help, we are trusting people. I think that was like a really big growth moment. Probably for everyone, but for sure, for you as a woman, I mean, you're stepping into your next thing. You're establishing this is a new role. And I'm setting the precedent for how things are going to be.

[00:27:53] I don't know, I think it's very, very inspirational. So before. Before [00we end, end our short call, can you give other brides some words of wisdom? 

[00:28:08] Kaitlynn: Definitely don't get stuck on the idea, is everyone else going to like this? Have a plan and a vision in your head and stick to it. And if someone comes back to you and says, Oh, well, I don't think that's a good idea.

[00:28:22] Say, Okay, I appreciate that feedback, but if you feel that way, and if you're going to cause problems during this, then you don't have to be there. and sticking to that, I feel like that's very important to stand up for yourself and what you want your special day to be. This is about you. It's not about the people that are, that are joining you on your special day.

[00:28:46] Amy: I think it's funny that that's the thing because it does, that's the thing that you say because it doesn't sound like you even experienced that. But what it does tell me is that just like me, you are in these groups and you're seeing how many people are up against that and how many people do fold. And how they end up having a wedding that they didn't even want.

And it's not even about the wedding. It's about the person you're becoming and the precedent that you're setting by settling and not sticking up for yourself. Caitlin, you are a wizard. You are a magician. I'm actually really excited to edit this and listen and add things to it because you've said a lot of profound things without even realizing it, I don't think. , so this is going to be a really meaty episode for brides and I think it's going to be like a little gift. I think it's going to help them along their way and have the wedding that they deserve and a beautiful experience to it.

[00:29:49] Well, was I right, or was I right? I told you! Kaitlynn’s story is the epitome of what I'm always preaching, [00:30:00] that your wedding can really be whatever the hell you want it to be. Your perfect wedding might look different from what you originally imagined, and it definitely is going to look different from everyone else's. And that is okay. In fact, I think it's pretty fucking terrific. I truly hope her experience inspires you to think outside of the box when it comes to yours, no matter what challenges you are up against..

[00:30:26] Take Kaitlynn's advice to heart. Trust your instincts, accept help from your loved ones, and don't be afraid to do things your way.

[00:30:36] Thank you for tuning in to the first episode of Your Wedding, Your Rules series. I think it was absolutely fantastic. Caitlin was like the best guest I could have asked for. If you enjoyed this episode, share it with a friend and subscribe. Your support is going to help me to reach more brides with these types of [00:31:00] empowering stories. Next time we will be diving into the very first thing I wanna talk about. When anybody tells me they just got engaged and they're amped To get started, we're gonna talk about the vision. I can't wait to tell you all of my thoughts around that.

[00:31:18] And also, one last thing, I use a podcast host that has a super cool feature, at least I think so. You can send me a message. Tell me about what you're currently up against, what you're struggling with, or a win, something that you have overcome or you're really proud of. I want to hear all of the things because it makes me to feel connected to you.

[00:31:44] If you have something to say that you want to share with other brides, let me know and it will probably pop up on a future podcast. You can leave your name or it can be anonymous. Until the next time, keep being your badass, beautiful self. Now go [00:32:00] out there and plan a wedding that is as extraordinary as you are.